69 replies to this topic

[DaveRob]

Wel I thought id start a bit of a thread about mods to my SPi Cooper... although it feels a bit like i'm sitting in a gold fishbowl with you guys watchin... ... The point of this thread was to see if ...like Sprocket... I can squezze the magic number out of my SPi using a Rover ECU rather than go down the fully mappable route, that is 100BHP with no fueling issues. Now before I start I'd like to explain that I have been taking Sprockets advice and am posting this with his consent... most of the hard work has been down to Sprockets research what you see will be largley the result of his findings with the standard Rover MEMS. I wont steal any mans reaserch so please understand that Sprocket has been my major source of advice along with a little of what I have dug up myself. All the mechanics, money and grazed knuckles are my own work of course

It might look a bit like a full rebuild and if any of the mods deem it nessasary then I guess it might be moved to a different section....however.... like I said the objective is 100BHP out of a standard Rover MEMS. Sprocket reached 100BHP at the hard cut and has told me that it was looking too lean for comfort so developing on from his initial work and taking it a bit further heres where we start....

A Mini Cooper 1996 N plate 1275cc SPi... in fairly standard trim ...... we've all seen one eh?

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You can see from the general state of Mini that it needs a new door skin, new wings and a new front panel... so a bit of body work to do then as well as the engine.... should keep me busy then....

A couple of hours later and we get to this state

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Basicly the engine is stripped... manifolds off, all engine loom out, steady disconected, ECU out, headlights disconected, Brake servo out, Spots and Fogs off, bumpers off, clutch disconnected,rad out, horn off, Head off, the only bits to do are disconect the rod change, pop the drive shafts and unhook the engine mounts... Should make a start on that tommorrow night after work.

I need the block stripped for its rebore by the weekend as step one on the way to the goal is 1380cc.... you cant beat CC's for HP generation.

.......... more tommorrow.....

DaveRob

[Sprocket]

Just so you know, the engine i built with the Kent 274 scatter cam was dyno'd and gave 80.5bhp and 64lbft.

That is a 1293 Cooper SPi engine, 10:1 compression, 29/35mm valves, standard head, standard inlet manifold, standard throttle body, standard bottom end, 57i induction kit, standard Cooper ECU MNE 101070, standard injector, maniflow LCB, RC40 single box exhaust and the Kent 274sp cam. With that spec, other than the stage 1 kit, the only non standard parts are the cam and the bigger inlet valve. There is a lightened flywheel but its effects wont show on the dyno and the straight cut drops, again wont show on the flywheel figure, but it will on the at the wheel figure. Both these items were not necisary and would not affect the final figures.

http://s126.photobuc...nt=53400385.flv

The injector needs to be replaced with a bigger one as the fueling started to max out at the top end resulting in the fueling startingf to lean, which is not good!! Easy fix though

You can actualy see where the injector maxes out in this video clip as there is a couple of puffs of black smoke from the exhaust, after that it started to lean off

Now who said that tuning an injection engine is more difficult and more expensive than a carb engine?? What is different with this engine and tuining a carb engine?? Nothing!!

Looking forward to seeing this engine running Rob. Youve only got 11 weeks till British Mini Showdown

[DaveRob]

The clock is ticking...............

Rob

[DaveRob]

Was gonna post an update.....but after getting the driveshafts out in about 15 mins I got kinda stuck with the gear shift roll pin..... need a roll pin drift. Going to buy or make one today.... results later. lol.

Need engine out by the weekend and stripped to crank. Rebore to 1380 next week using Minispares Mega pistons. update soon

Rob

[DaveRob]

Ok.... been called away with work for a week so heres the update....

Engine out and stripped..... booked in for offset rebore to 1380cc using Mega pistons from MiniSpares

New parts ready for reassembly pics follow

New Camshaft... Kent 274SP...scatter pattern cam with a very wide touque profile across the rev range and shouldnt hassle my emmisions to much

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Duplex alloy lightened verneir timing gear.....

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ARP rod bolts..... no letting go with these

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New shells and thrusts..

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To go with.... Wedged bladed Tuffted crossdrilled lightened and fully balanced crank..

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At one end of the crank we have...Fully lightened and dynamically balanced clutch...

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With Orange Diaphram and AP racing bonded clutch

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At the other end of the crank is the S damper setup with the machined pully for my relocated crank sensor

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On top is going the new flowed and ported head... 36x31 valves with double springs, ported and matched to the manifold doweled for location...

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And on top of that goes the 1.5 Rollers over the valve train

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Other parts needed to go for 100BHP .... and essential to stop things going lean

A new injector with a higher capacity flowrate... this is the Rover 1.4K16SPi injector from the 16 valve metro

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Their are mods to the throttle body to go along with this but more on that later...

and for the ECU......like I said its a standard Rover unit ..... just its from the Metro GTA also and is pin for pin compatible with the Mini SPi SINGLE plug loom.... but the Metro engine had fueling maps to cover its standard output of 106BHP......

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The part number is

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So... to make a list of stuff so far ready for assembly to achieve a min 100BHP we have

1380cc
11:1 compression ratio with decked block and 7cc Mega Pistons, head buretted to get CR right
Head is 36mm inlet 31mm exhaust, fully gas flowed
Inlet manifold ported to match the head and doweled to the head for positive location
rover 1.4K16SPi injector
1.5:1 rockers with valve springs matched to their use
Kent 274 Scatter Pattern camshaft timed in correctly using lightened vernier gears
Revised ECU...... however I do plan to test the standard ECU for performance when I get the car to the rolling road

Other work needing doing is

Rebore throttle body, details later
Lightened cam followers
Maniflow Big bore LCB
2" exhaust system
Center main strap with HT bolts
Maniflow Big bore LCB
2" exhaust system
If I can fit it in in time Ill be doing a dry deck system....

Updates soon ......... suggestions and comments more than welcome......

Rob

[Sprocket]

Very nice

Word of warning on the large bore LCB, if i havent already mentioned it. The center branch will foul the water pipe on the inlet manifold, and judginng by the other topic, it may fould the inlet itself.

The water pipe issue can be resolvd reasonably easily, but im now not sure about the clearance of the inlet manifold :S

This spec engine needs the large bore LCB but if it doest fit, its no good anyway


Something we could may be discuss

Maybe speak to maniflow direct and explain the situation, they may be able to form a center branch more like the injection one, but with larger tube, then all you need be concerned about is the water pipe on the manifold

[SMP]

Sprocket - can you PM me or put something in my other thread about the water pipe being resolved easily!! Whilst I have managed to get it all bolted on I still have to restore water heating to the manifold. If I could get my hands on 16 mm core plugs easily it would help blank off the pipe I have cut.

However I have had to reshape the centre branch quite a bit - not acceptable if you're going for max power - and you can't file enough off the manifold without risking breaking through.

Cheers
Steve

[DaveRob]

I also saw the post re the fouling manifold...... I had thought of this...

http://www.specialis...oduct_info-null

and also noted this comment on the home page

"We specialise in low volume bespoke components "

so if Maniflow cant help maybe SC can..... any thoughts???

Rob

[Sprocket]

I also saw the post re the fouling manifold...... I had thought of this...

http://www.specialis...oduct_info-null

and also noted this comment on the home page

"We specialise in low volume bespoke components "

so if Maniflow cant help maybe SC can..... any thoughts???

Rob

You may well find that manifold is made by maniflow anyway, my 16v one was anyway.

Maniflow should be able to help, its not as if the large bore LCB is a cheap item to start with, you may be able to persuade them to shape the center branch much like the injection one but in the larger tube at little or no extra cost. Just explain to them that the engine needs it and everything other than their injection LCB wont fit. like i said, it only neeeds to miss the inlet manifold casting, the coolant pipe can be got round in other ways.

Its a bit of an expensive item to buy and then find that there is NO way its goinng to fit no matter how much perswasion you give it, andwas the reason i brought the subject up, i had never thought that it might hit the inlet casting itself, but was aware of the coolant pipe.

Speak to maniflow, thats th best and easiest option

[Avl_Paul]

GREAT thread guys - keep the information flowing. This will be very interesting to watch evolve and will provide nice documentation for the future! Go DaveRob go!

[mogg]

nice topic, thanks for all the photo specific info. I had read a bit of Keith Calver and was under the impression that the MEMs could not be modified or changed in any way. Nice to see a loophole. How much does all this cost? And is it true that you can get more horsepower out of a mini engine than you can a Vtec? The Jack Knight driver in Japan said it you could...?

[Sprocket]

Any update on this buddy

[DaveRob]

OK..... due to various work pressures and the fact that Ive had to replace the complete front end of Mini from the screen forwards this has gone a little slower than Id hoped but update is as follows.....

Gearbox stripped and rebuilt from the ground up..... new bearings, shims, spacers, center pick up, X pin diff, all lock tabs changed and all fixings drilled to take bigger metric box to block fixings. Block completly stripped to the cast iron then offset bored to 1380 and honed. All oil ways and waterways for block to head transfer tapped and plugged with brass taper plugs for complete dry deck. Oil gallery plugs tapped for brass taper plugs. gearbox to block fixings tapped in metric. Main center cap machined flat for steel strap. Pistons assembled to end over end balanced rods and dry fit to block after finally working out that Id mixed up a couple of rod caps.... (thanks for that one Sprocket ).... Block decked to give 11:1 CR and drilled for 11 stud

Every nut bolt and component of the subframe and running gear has been stripped to its component parts and dipped then plated for corrosion protection. If I can get some paint on the engine bay then I can assemble the running gear back to the shell.... but I need a good weekend without rain so I can get the Mini inside to spray the engine bay and under arches which are currently preped and primed ready

Next stage is

Finish the shell.........grrrrrrr

As the gearbox is finished and sitting in its black bin bag to keep it clean Ill be starting on assembling the block now. I still have some body work attend to but the main areas are done just a couple of sills to fit and a patch in the drivers floor to do.... if it stops raining here Ill get on with that but as the garage is full of Mini engine parts, compressors, welders, gas bottles etc lol I can only work outside on the body shell at the moment.

Ill post some pics up at the weekend if I can....

This has turned into a marathon run and far more work than I though but hey.... its a hobby lol...... especially as Ive done all the machining work myself with the exception of the purchased head....but even that has been tapped and faced for the dry deck by me so effectivly all I bought in the end was the port grinding and the bigger valves. As always Kudos to Sprocket for his advice as I go.

by the way..........welcome back Sprocket lol

Rob

[SMP]

Can I put my hand up from the back of the class and ask the dumb question?





What's a dry deck?

Cheers
Steve

[edi57]

I'd like to know what a dry deck is too please!